Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Georgia > Atlanta
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
 
Old 10-16-2012, 02:28 PM
 
1,971 posts, read 3,036,835 times
Reputation: 2209

Advertisements

Is it safe to have an expensive camera on my person during the upcoming L5P Halloween Parade?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 10-16-2012, 02:38 PM
 
2,530 posts, read 4,761,440 times
Reputation: 2053
It is low odds that someone is going to rip it out of your hands but definitely take normal precautions. Keep it on a strap and close to your body and definitely don't sit it down and out of your hands at any time.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 10-16-2012, 10:25 PM
 
Location: West Cobb County, GA (Atlanta metro)
9,191 posts, read 33,828,007 times
Reputation: 5309
Any place, a public place, can of course have dangers if you are lugging around a DSLR that costs $$$. A theft of something like this can happen just as easily at a parade in Buckhead as it can in L5P. Here's a few tips:

1) Just as an example: Canon DSLRs will come with a "Canon EOS" neck strap (or similar) and the other brands do something similar. Ditch it. Buy a generic non-branded neck strap so you're not advertising.

2) Likewise, some thieves have studied the value of certain models of cameras. You can take tiny square pieces of black electical or a similar tape and cover the model number on the camera to make it hard to actually ID - from a distance, they all look very similar these days, and without a model number to reference, someone can't tell if it's a $500 camera as opposed to a $2000 model, many times. Sounds like overkill, but "taping" is commonly used by photographers (especially when traveling).

3) Not all thieves look and act like a thief. If someone who seems "normal" comes up and enthusiastically acts like they want to learn about your camera, and then says, "Can I see it?" (as in wanting to hold it), never, ever, take the strap off your neck and let them do that. They can "see it" just fine from around your neck. And while it seems like common sense, you'd be surprised how many people I've actually seen trust a total stranger enough to do this.

4) If you're the type of person who regularly asks a stranger to, "Hey, can you please take a photo of me with my family/friends?", and then hands them your camera to do it, keep in mind that just because a thief doesn't approach you, doesn't mean you might not actually pick THEM, and literally just hand your equipment over to them. This actually did happen to a friend of mine once... handed his Nikon to a seemingly nice guy with a girlfriend, asked if he'd take their group photo, and the guy bolted with the camera and his girlfriend trying to keep up (they got caught, by the way, but not before dropping the camera to the ground and breaking it). If you like self-included group photos reguarly, don't hand your cell or DSLR to someone to do it... take a cheap pocket camera as a 2nd camera with you and use that for this purpose.

5) Sitting something expensive down (camera or anything) for "just a second" as you turn to look in a bag or purse or talk, is all that it takes for someone to snatch and run. I once sat a pocket camera on a sitting wall next to me, turned to the side just to make sure a bag I had wasn't going to fall, and someone ran past at top speed and snatched the camera. A bystander tripped them, and you guessed it, like the example above, the camera hit the ground and broke. Keep your camera on you, or in a bag that stays on you, when in public gatherings and events.


Some sounds a bit paranoid or overcooked, but I've known people who have gone to events with easily $5,000+ of camera gear on them. Unless you have premo insurance that will completely replace it all if it's stolen, then sometimes being a bit over cautious keeps the stuff in your pocession.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Settings
X
Data:
Loading data...
Based on 2000-2020 data
Loading data...

123
Hide US histogram

Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Georgia > Atlanta
Similar Threads
View detailed profiles of:

All times are GMT -6. The time now is 08:58 AM.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top